SOLUTIONS

If you have faith as a grain of a mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove, and nothing shall be impossible unto you.    Matthew 17:20

There I sat on the floor with my little nephew, Lego blocks surrounding us.  His young eyes peered over the pieces as I held the directions to put together this apparatus, one far more sophisticated than the plain Legos I built when I was little.  Things have changed.  So there I was having fun assisting him as to the various pieces/steps required to put together this contraption. 

In the course of our building project, at times I would watch my nephew as he studied the pieces before him and concentrated on the right fit.  When it registered in his little mind, he would officiously state I have the solution.  It was a declaration.  One would think a Head of State were entering the room.  I might of thought it comical if I were not so impressed by his confidence and the repeatedly correct solutions.  As we sat there engrossed in this project, I silently prayed that as he grew he would look to Jesus as his solution—every time for every need to be solved.

Jesus is the solution for your life and for mine.  Faith is the key.  Even the small faith of a mustard seed will do.  That is all that the Lord needs and wants for matters to be turned over to Him so that He can work out solutions.  Belief in Jesus and all He can do builds trust in Him so that we go to Him—regularly—for help and healing.

The solutions we receive from the riddles in our lives may not be the answers we  pray for.  Sometimes solutions are antithetical to our desires.  Whatever results come, they are God’s best solutions to our problems and concerns.  The Lord has a mysterious way of making the outcome for one need an exponential blessing.  He is such a giver.  The Giver.  And while His solutions may confound us at times, we can trust that the perfect love of God has a reason for what comes—and for what does not.

For Christians worldwide, this month begins the solemn season of Lent.  It commences on Ash Wednesday and continues for 40 days.  It is a time of sacrifice, reflection, and spiritual renewal.  A time to ponder the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness to ready Himself for the inimitable and dark day of His crucifixion.  By all accounts, that day looks bleak and aimless.  It was a day of violence, torment, and death.  A day Jesus endured for the forgiveness of man’s sins as He shed His blood on Calvary to be the cleansing blood to wash sin from the lives of people of all place and time.   Jesus is The Solution to human need.  He always will be. 

Losses in our lives due to death, divorce, illness, wayward children, job endings, and other significant transitions, are losses that beg for a solution.  Jesus solves.  His presence offers strength and comfort.  That does not mean that circumstances will be different; they may remain as they are for a time.  But it does mean Jesus will go through life’s challenges and sorrows with us so that we are never alone and never without hope.

In the times in which we live—a turbulent, rapidly changing, and sinful world—we need Lent, and any hour of focus on Christ to remind us and renew us of a formidable and holy Christ who made the ultimate sacrifice on the cross for the covering of sin.   As you walk through this season, may your heart be tenderized toward Jesus who stayed alone in the wilderness for your sake.  For mine.  May these weeks before Easter serve to remind us that the era of history in which we live is not faced alone.  The turbulence and shift we live through is a season overseen by Sovereign God.  God’s unmatched love and divine wisdom gave us a solution for this place and time: Jesus.  May you seek Him with all of your heart and be held safe and sound in all of His love.

Lord Jesus, to think of You preparing for the cross and wilderness in order to meet Your day of suffering, stops all other thought and activity.  Pondering those solemn days is to be mindful of Your sacrificial love.  Such love is beyond words.  Lord, with humility and warm gratitude, Your own bow their hearts before You.  May Your heart be blessed as Your people live with abiding faith in You as our solution.  There is no other.  In Thee, Lord Christ, Amen.

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